Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa
Lifelong Gretsch guy here (I've had at least one in my stable since early 1964, presently down to three), owned my CW II since 2012, and since I have extensive hands-on experience with both brands I'll offer my observations/recommendations in that light; grab a cold Molson or two and some chips-&-salsa - this might take a while  :... |
Hello Steve. As a guy who is often told his explanations and answers are too long, I appreciate your reply!! I like a lot of details and the reasons for those details. You've provided both. A lot to chew on there.
Humor me, I'm going to talk this out. Add your input where you want to (everyone else also welcome).
In a way, if I like the Gretsch tone... I should buy a Gretcsh. Sounds overly simple, but makes perfect sense. However I do find the neck a little tight and I don't like the tuners ratio. But that's it! The tuners would probably be an easy fix if it kept bugging me.
Godin puts 26:1 tuners on the treble side of the 5th Ave (18:1 on bass). Also, their neck is wider. Wait a second... I just went and ran the math. People shouldn't round the Gretsch Electromatic nut width off in error like they do. 1.6875 does not round to 1.68, if anything you round up to 1.69. Anyhow, 1.6875 is exactly 1 11/16. Godin's neck is just 1/32 wider at 1 23/32. I'd be hard pressed to feel that difference I think.
I just found out this morning that the 5th Ave HB's have 4 wires and can be split! The info came right from Godin. That opens up some interesting tonal options! The slightly higher gain HB options while still getting some single coil sounds when I want them. I had a Schecter Solo Custom semi-hollow with HB's once and actually used the neck split more than the HB's. On that particular guitar I didn't like the HB's clean. It had a Duncan "Custom Custom" in the Bridge and a 59 in the neck. For mid gain and beyond they were great, but I'm not looking for that much gain now. I bought it for the Piezo bridge and the ability to mix tones, but the acoustic piezo tone was quite bad.
I agree that the 5th Ave TV Jones seems over priced. Part of that is the high gloss finish. I see that the regular 5th ave in high gloss adds 40% to the price! However another 40% is added just due to the pu's and the silver/gold paint for the TV. Maybe there's something that I'm missing like it's a limited run or something.
I have no ability to try any Godin 5th Ave without buying. I liked the tone of the Gretsch Filter'Tron PU's. Clear without being sharp. I think that's why I'm leaning to P90's. I listened to Tom Jones of TV Jones say that their pickups have natural compression on the high end. I thought that is what I heard with the Filter'Trons on the Gretsch too.
I also liked the Bigsby, but didn't like how I couldn't bring the bar over the strings to hold while strumming (like other wahmmy bars). I assume some people simply file down the stop section at the Bigsby bridge so it has more range??